Astrud Gilberto (born March 29, 1940) is a Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer. She gained international attention in the 1960s following her recording of the song "The Girl from Ipanema".
She was born Astrud Evangelina Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro. Her father was a language professor, and she became fluent in several languages. She immigrated to the United States in the early 1960s, where she resides since then.
Astrud’s recordings exposed the nations of the World to the sensuality of Brazilian music and to her unique vocal interpretations of American music, such as “The Shadow of your Smile,” “It Might as well be Spring,” “Fly Me to the Moon,” “Look to the Rainbow,” “Love Story”, etc… Following the hit with “Ipanema” her recording career quickly took off. Her first solo effort, “The Astrud Gilberto Album” was an immediate best-seller and was itself nominated as album of the year.
Her next albums were all chart-toppers and were released on a yearly schedule. Her talents were much in demand in other areas as well as she appeared in two motion pictures, “The Hanged Man” and “Get Yourself a College Girl.” She made appearances in all of the popular US television shows of the time, and had TV specials built around her in Europe, Japan and Africa. For many years she was the voice of Eastern Airlines, having recorded award-winning commercials.
In the early seventies Astrud revealed another facet of her talents, her songwriting, which was introduced on the albums “Astrud Gilberto Now” (1972) and “That Girl From Ipanema” (1977). In 1976, one of her compositions, “Live Today” (co-written with Jerome Schur), received an award at the Tokyo Music Festival. In the early eighties, Astrud Gilberto formed a group, a sextet comprised of piano, bass, drums, trombone, guitar and percussion. Her son, Marcelo Gilberto, joined her group as bassist. With this group format, she toured Europe, Japan, Canada, and the United States. With the aid of Marcelo’s valuable musical contributions, she polished the group’s arrangements and entered a different phase in her career, as her music became more diversified and her songwriting more proliferous.
Seeking for a way to overcome her stage fright, which was sometimes overwhelming, Astrud attended the Stella Adler School of Acting, for a couple of years, in the early eighties. The experience was helpful. Although still shy, Astrud learned to control the stage fright to the extent that she can “live with it”. Her album “Astrud Gilberto Plus The James Last Orchestra” released in 1987, solidified her career as songwriter. The release of this album combined with the reissuing of some of her early records as CDs has created a whole new generation of fans for Astrud Gilberto all over the world, in addition to her already large number of followers.
In 1990 Astrud toured extensively, developing her live show and writing new material. In 1992, Astrud received the “Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement” for her outstanding contribution to Latin jazz music. In 1995 in a sold-out Thursday night appearance, Astrud Gilberto became the first “Jazz” Artist to sing at the trendy “House of Blues” in Los Angeles, which had until then presented Blues and Rock acts, exclusively. She has also broken house records at the very popular “Jazz Cafe” club in London.
Astrud Gilberto’s sold-out performances at the “House of Blues” and her legendary shows at NYC’s SOB’s continued to be musical “happenings” to her fans up until 2001. The following year in which she was admitted to the International Latin Music Hall of Fame, Gilberto announced she was taking “indefinite time off” from public performances after four decades playing clubs and festivals. Her second marriage, to Nicholas LaSorsa, ended more than four decades ago and she remained in Philadelphia living in privacy.
In retirement, she grew interested in philosophy, painting and campaigning against cruelty to animals, insisting that she did not miss the “stage fright” and her ill-treatment by record companies. The past few years, though, have reportedly been extremely difficult for Gilberto, who turns 83 today. Her experiences in the music business have deeply affected her and damaged her trust in people. She now lives in isolation, in her apartment overlooking a river, with the company of a cat and visits and calls from her children.
(Edited from Jazz Blues News & The Independent)